ADAer Puts on Boxing Gloves for EFCA

ADA Board member David Jacobs recently took on Jack and Suzy Welch in BusinessWeek's Debate Room. The topic: Should the Employee Free Choice Act be signed into law to protect U.S. workers from anti-union coercion by corporations?



David is an associate professor of labor and human resources at the Earl Graves School of Management at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

Letter the Post wouldn't print on EFCA

Dear Washington Post,

Your editorial column on the Employee Free Choice Act, "A Balance for Labor" misses the mark despite considerable hedging. Your chief argument for even writing the article is that the Employee Free Choice Act, which the U.S. House recently passed, "goes too far". We contend that is the employers who go too far.

You write, "Employers who don't want to see their workers organize deserve a chance to make that case to employees in advance of the decision." Employers already have that chance. They have the opportunity to establish fair, safe, and collaborative work environments at a time of their choosing. Workers, on the other hand, currently have to rely on the broken National Labor Relations Board process that you yourselves admit is weak and overly discouraging to workers simply seeking to improve their lives.

Passage of the EFCA would give workers more options for helping themselves and would put employers who go too far on notice that poor labor practices and bullying tactics will not be swept under the rug anymore.

Read more about EFCA in our oped.

Red Ink: Bush Debt and the Legacy of Robin Hood in Reverse

From ADA Board Member Hans Johnson
Hans is also a contributing editor for In These Times and President of Progressive Victory

Hans shares a story of a union dad who provided for himself and his family by organizing and being a lifelong advocate for workplace prosperity.

Full Article

Straight Talk Express.....sure

White House hopeful Senator John "Maverick" McCain courageously refused to admit condoms help stop the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases during a chat with reporters on his so-called Straight Talk Express bus.

Below is an excerpt. Read the full report here:

Q: "What about grants for sex education in the United States? Should they include instructions about using contraceptives? Or should it be Bush's policy, which is just abstinence?"
Mr. McCain: (Long pause) "Ahhh. I think I support the president's policy."
Q: "So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?"
Mr. McCain: (Long pause) "You've stumped me."
Q: "I mean, I think you'd probably agree it probably does help stop it?"
Mr. McCain: (Laughs) "Are we on the Straight Talk express? I'm not informed enough on it. Let me find out. You know, I'm sure I've taken a position on it on the past. I have to find out what my position was. Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception - I'm sure I'm opposed to government spending on it, I'm sure I support the president's policies on it."
Q: "But you would agree that condoms do stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Would you say: 'No, we're not going to distribute them,' knowing that?"
Mr. McCain: (Twelve-second pause) "Get me Coburn's thing, ask Weaver to get me Coburn's paper that he just gave me in the last couple of days. I've never gotten into these issues before."

I suppose when you're pandering to right-wing religious zealots straight talk is a relative thing.

Bad Jokes, We Don't Love 'Em

Each Memorial Day weekend my partner and I go with another ADA staffer and his wife to see Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" at the Wolf Trap.

It's becoming an annual tradition we all look forward to, throwing a blanket out in the grass, opening a bottle of wine and celebrating the start of summer. We talk politics, update each other on our busy lives and when the show starts we listen to Keillor's funny stories and look at the stars. My partner and I are comfortable with our friends and no one around us seems to care when he puts his arms around me when the night air turns chilly. It's hard for anyone to be uncomfortable listening to Garrison's show, the ultimate in hokey wholesomeness.

I've read Keillor's statements on gay rights before and they are, like him, slightly out of date but never offensive. They are the words of an old school progressive.

Yet, this week I read a column by Keillor at Salon.com and stopped cold with this paragraph:

"The country has come to accept stereotypical gay men -- sardonic fellows with fussy hair who live in over-decorated apartments with a striped sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers and go in for flamboyance now and then themselves. If they want to be accepted as couples and daddies, however, the flamboyance may have to be brought under control."

What?! Even if that silly list of stereotypes were true, since when has parenthood been limited to those who follow the mainstream? My mother put food on the table by working in a man's job at a factory. Does failing to live up to a feminine ideal mean she was a bad mother? Or worse, should have her right to have children taken away?

Think I'm overreacting? Just last week legislators in Arkansas introduced a ban on gay parent adoptions and foster care. Men with fussy hair, in their eyes, can't be good parents either.

There has been so much uproar over the recent grossly homophobic remarks by Ann Coulter and General Peter Pace. So far I've only seen a response to Keillor's embarrassing comments from Dan Savage, editor of The Stanger, and on a few blogs.

While Garrison Keillor is certainly not in the same league as that hateful monster Ann Coulter, we on the left shouldn't give him a pass either. Statements like his are harmful and hurt real people and real families. Sissies or not, gay men and women are becoming parents and we need our friends to support us.

Although I'll cringe a bit when I buy the tickets, we'll still go see "A Prairie Home Companion" this summer. I like being with our friends and I like the sense of community I get from the people around us. When we're lying there on our blanket listening to the adventures of Guy Noir, I'll look around me and be thankful that at some point the audience became more accepting than the star.

UPDATE: Read Keillor's apology here. And what Dan Savage had to say about it here.

Is FauxNews down for the count?

Eric Boehlert on Media Matters writes Fox News Can't Take A Punch.

This is an excellent look at the bizarre and telling responses Fox News has undertaken in the face of its eroding legitimacy as any sort of legitimate news organization.

This topic deserves new scrutiny given the recent events surrounding the formerly scheduled Democratic Presidential debate in Nevada which was to be sponsored by Fox News. Activists in Nevada aided by bloggers around the country pushed for Fox to be dropped as a sponsor given their shady status as propogandists for conservatives and specifically the GOP.

Politico also has an article.

And a word from one of the architects of Fox's dismissal, Matt Stoller of mydd.com.

ADA Activist Riles Rep

After refusing to answer any questions from his constituents during a town hall meeting, New York Representative Randy Kuhl freaked out on an ADA activist who recorded the Congressman's interview with a local network.